The broadband 'upgrade' that felt like a downgrade

Jolyon Russ and Victoria Power were drifting blamelessly in and out of cyberspace and enjoying the occasional luxury of a TV dinner or a telephone call. Then Homechoice, which provided their broadband, telephone and television service, was swallowed by Tiscali and the couple were told that they would be "seamlessly migrated" to a superior and cheaper package.

This adventure did not begin reassuringly. First came eager letters instructing them to upgrade online using the enclosed user name and password, only neither was enclosed. Nor was a promised customer number to enable flesh-and-blood access to their account; nor, even was there a phone number to ring for succour. Two months elapsed with no sign of life from Tiscali other than ineffectual voices on the end of a 10p-a-minute helpline.

Finally there was a development: the TV stopped working. Then the internet connection died. Power rang to complain and found her name had been removed from the account and that no one would speak to her. Many expensive calls later a technician came by, fiddled and fled. Eventually, the broadband was restored but at painfully faltering pace. Tiscali, however, told Russ and Power that the slowness of the service was a different issue and they would have to go to the back of the complaints queue.

Meanwhile it had forgotten to close the couple's old Homechoice account and so was billing them twice. "We had 39 days without full service and have spent a hideous amount of time on the exorbitant customer services line,' says Russ. Six weeks of bashful silence follow my appeals to the press office, then it rouses itself to blame an "error" and promises that the double billing will be resolved and refunds and goodwill dispatched. More slow weeks later, the pair are to be offered £350 in compensation.